


Her Name is Alice

by kxgfangirl



Series: Her name is Alice [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 09:00:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12055647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kxgfangirl/pseuds/kxgfangirl





	Her Name is Alice

She knew that he had been found. She was told, once she was cleared. She, someone that has been a member of the S.S.R. since before the current director was born, had to wait three days after Captain Steven Rogers was found to find out about it. It was all Coulson would talk about, and she still wasn’t ‘able’ to see him yet. She was furious. A man that never knew one of the few people she could’ve called a friend knew that Steve was found days before she did.

He had been frozen for nearly seventy years. Why did three day seem so long? She felt like strangling Fury. He avoided her for a week after she found out. It took a week after Steve had been found that she was allowed to see him. Alice had asked Happy to hold off on telling Tony where she was going for a bit. She wanted a few minutes to herself, then Tony could follow. The moral support would be much needed. She asked Happy and JARVIS to suggest that Tony follow her.

 

It was... cold. The lab was cold. Alice’s skin at the sight of a lab coat. The base of her neck throbbed with a dull echo of the pain that followed the savage stabbing of a needle. They hadn’t cared where the serum went, only that it worked. 

It was cold. It was strange. Temperature no longer affected her, so it could only be in her head. The massive stage lights aimed at a frozen form didn’t help. A shiver ran down her spine as her eyes flickered over the equipment. Some was uncovered, most wasn’t. 

Her heart stopped when she saw that familiar golden hair. Her hand twitched. Her breath stuttered. She rushed over to him, uncaring of the people that got pushed out of her way. Half of Steven’s body was still buried in ice. His head and half of his torso were free. One of his arms was free, the other still encased. Alice placed her hand on top of his free hand. Her chest heaved slightly as her eyes filled with tears. Steve was there. He had been found. He could have a proper funeral. “Steve.” She whispered heart brokenly.

Alice tensed when a hand clapped her shoulder. It rested there heavily. “Hey Al.” Tony’s voice was soft, comforting. She gave a half-hearted smile.

A shrill beep broke the silence. It was followed by another beep. And another. 

“My God.” Someone whispered. “He’s alive!”

A beep. Another. Alice gasped. Tony knelt beside her. He squeezed her shoulder. She finally let herself openly weep for the first time since Jarvis passed. She laced her fingers through Steve’s. “Welcome back, Steve.” She smiled through her tears.

She turned to press her face into Tony’s shoulder. The fabric of Steve’s glove protested when she squeezed his hand tighter. Tony wrapped his arms around her in an unsure embrace. She let the tension seep out of her body. Alice only raised her head to glare at a lab coat when someone tried to move them. They were left alone after several unsuccessful attempts. All wavered at the combined heat of the duo’s death glares.

“Maybe they’ll help him melt faster.” One lab coat muttered under his breath.

 

When Alice moved again, her entire sleeve of her button up blouse was soaked with freezing cold water. She stood under her own power, and helped Tony up. She was grateful. He had held that position for hours without complaint, willing to help her through the sob fest that was the last several hours. She wiped at her eyes once more. Tony knuckled a few of his own away also. She smiled a soft thanks. 

 

Steve was awake. He was awake, and she wasn’t allowed to see him. Alice hadn’t seen him in two weeks. Not for lack of trying. The man she had once called friend-and hoped to be able to call friend once more- was going to wake up alone in an unfamiliar room. Then he would be lied to by a stranger, just to see if he was still the soldier he once was. 

 

He was different. He wasn’t the boy Alice had known seventy-five years ago. He wasn’t the man she saw prancing on stage and showing off his super-strength. He wasn’t the man that was forced to smile for the camera. Waking up seven decades later had aged him in a way. The way he held himself, the way he moved, the way he spoke, his voice were all so heartbreakingly familiar. It reminded her of a time when she had friends. True friends, not the agents she accationally worked with.   
The man she had once called friend- the man she hoped she could call friend again one day- was being called to war a few months after being thawed out. He hadn’t had time to settle-much less recover. He hadn’t had time to grieve. For him it had only been weeks. It had been seven decades and Bucky’s death still ached. Now he was expected to fight for a world he no longer knew. He was given a choice,a choice that was not a choice: take time to recover, to grieve, a situation that could result in thousands of casualties, or fight while still scarred from loss and lost in the world around him.

Alice wanted to call Fury out-because how dare he- but she new in her heart that if she was in his position, she’d make the same decision. And if she was in Steve’s position, she’d also agree. It would scrub off some of the blood on her hands.

 

Alice sat on the opposite side of a the room that held the conference of the main deck. Tony and Dr. Banner had already run off to the lab. Tony had asked for some 'alone time’ with the doctor. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and pulled Dr. Banner along by the arm. Alice rolled her eyes in sync with the good doctor, but she let them go. They could protect themselves. Agent Romanoff and Mr. Odinson sulked at the round table and Steve talked with Director Fury in the command center.  
“I think there’s someone who’s been waiting to meet you.”  
Alice looked up from her book to see Fury pointing in her direction. Her heart froze, then cracked when a familiar pair of sky blue eyes met her’s.   
“Alice?” He whispered, barely loud enough for her enhanced ears to hear. No one in his vacinatey stirred. He began to close the distance between them, long, quick steps. “Alice.” He repeated. This time his voice was louder, hopeful.  
“Steve.” Her voice was breathless, filled with joy and fear. For him. For her.  
His embrace would’ve broke the bones of a human. “I thought you were dead.”  
“I’m not.” She reassured. “Neither are you.”  
“I know.”   
Alice was used to resting her chin on Steve’s head, but she found the reverse just as comforting.


End file.
